It was a kids' Christmas play of years gone by. A Silent Night. Mary and Joseph centre stage in the spotlight. A manger and baby Jesus asleep on the hay.
But creeping from the side of the stage, a four-year-old girl --- Coke-bottle glasses, golden ringlets protruding beneath a woolly sheep costume. Suddenly she grabs him -- baby Jesus -- right from the manger. Can you blame her? Who wouldn’t want to hold the baby?
Mary, in fierce protection, springs into action. “Let go!” she cries, clutching the doll’s feet. Back and forth, centre stage, the tug of war ensues. Mary pulling ever stronger on the feet; a sheep hanging on to the head for dear life, until suddenly the little sheep loses her grip. Sheep and Mary landing on their backsides and wounded prides; the baby Jesus flying high into the air, end over end plummeting at last in the middle of angels and shepherds and wise men and sheep.
Not an idyllic Nativity play. Not the Silent Night we sing about. And yet…far closer to the reality of that night, to the reality of our world.
For as much as this time of year brings to mind the peaceful scene of Mary and Joseph and a baby lying in a manger, the story of Jesus is not a static one, not a silent one, not a peaceful one. Aunts and uncles and distant cousins all around, each wanting to hold the baby. Cows and sheep eating from the very same trough that houses the Son of God. Manure and noise and strange visitors. Division and war and no room in the inn.
And in the middle of it all -- Jesus -- who comes not to stay in a manger, but to be touched and held and poked and prodded. Jesus who comes to a manger to rise to a cross, to hold us all in the wide open arms of God’s love. Jesus who comes to be with us in the middle of the noise and chaos and messiness of life to give life to the world. Jesus who comes not to give us silent nights, but peace.
And so, wherever you find yourselves this Christmas, this is our prayer: that God’s love dwelling among us in a Child in the Manger will fill you and your family with life, with love, with peace.
Peace from Peace Lutheran.
Kathy Calkins is the pastor of the Innisfail Peace Lutheran Church.
